Quirky Slate

Liu Xuan had always felt that something was off. These skeleton monsters had such low stats despite their high levels. Weren’t they basically walking bundles of experience?

They had been buried beneath those [Demonized Fish] and only appeared after all the fish had been killed. Surely they couldn’t be even weaker than those?

“Whatever. I’ll give it a try first.”

Liu Xuan leaped off the pillar and landed beside a [Low-Level Undead].

The skeleton noticed him. Its upper and lower jaws clacked together with a “clack-clack” sound before it reached out and grabbed at him.

Its movements were extremely slow, and it even limped as it walked. It looked just like the ordinary zombies from Plants vs. Zombies.

Liu Xuan allowed it to strike him. As expected, the [Low-Level Undead] was instantly killed, collapsing into a pile of bones on the ground.

What puzzled him was that no kill notification appeared.

It didn’t grant him any experience, either, and there wasn’t even a hint of loot.

After thinking for a moment, Liu Xuan approached a nearby [Undead Soldier].

The creature dragged along a rusty sword and swung it at him without hesitation. The result was exactly the same.

It still gave him nothing.

Just as Liu Xuan was wondering what was going on, a series of “clack-clack-clack-clack” sounds came from behind him. He turned around and saw that the [Low-Level Undead] he had killed earlier was reassembling itself. Its bones pieced themselves back together, and it shakily stood up once more.

That explained why killing them didn’t grant any experience.

Because he hadn’t actually killed them.

Liu Xuan killed the [Low-Level Undead] again. It still gave him no experience, and after a short while, it stood back up once more.

He killed it more than a dozen times in a row, and it revived every single time.

If this continued, wouldn’t it be impossible to ever kill them? What kind of buggy minion was this?

Liu Xuan didn’t believe that was possible.

In a game, when you encountered a monster that couldn’t be killed, it was either necessary for the plot or you were using the wrong method.

These monsters had such low stats that they were obviously cannon fodder. And if they were cannon fodder, there was a good chance that someone—or something—was controlling them from behind the scenes.

Perhaps the controller was hiding nearby, continually reviving these undead minions.

It was also possible that some kind of object was responsible. If so, he had even more reason to find it.

It might very well be a treasure.

But where could the controller—or the object—be hiding?

Liu Xuan looked around. On the surface, there didn’t seem to be anywhere to hide in the village, so it was probably inside a structure such as a cave or tunnel.

However, even though the place had been washed by the river, black silt still covered everything. The entire background had been smeared into one indistinct mess.

There was a flight of stone steps near Liu Xuan, but they were so black that he would never have noticed them without looking carefully.

If there really were underground tunnels, they would be even harder to find.

For now, he could only use the stupidest method and search bit by bit.

Speaking of underground tunnels, they naturally brought cellars and basements to mind. In a small village like this, no one would likely dig a random hole in an irrelevant spot.

Therefore, Liu Xuan focused mainly on the areas around the ruins of the buildings and the interiors themselves.

Most of the belongings had been washed away by the river anyway, so searching was relatively easy.

Liu Xuan swept through the houses one by one. Before long, he found two downward entrances. They appeared to be ordinary farm cellars used for storing supplies.

Beside the entrances, there were several holes in the stone bricks that had probably been used to secure the cellar doors. The doors were gone now, and naturally, the fittings that connected them were gone as well.

Only a layer of rust remained at the bottoms of the holes.

Because they were situated in low-lying areas, the cellars were still filled with water even though the river had receded.

The water was filthy and pitch-black, making it impossible to see anything inside.

Liu Xuan didn’t want to go down there, either. Even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to see anything through all that muck.

He temporarily marked the locations of the two cellars. He had only searched a small section of the village and had already found two, so there would surely be quite a few by the time he finished searching the entire place.

It would be better to locate them all first.

The one hiding a person or treasure would probably have something unusual about it.

The skeleton monsters were the only troublesome part.

Yes, even Liu Xuan was disgusted by these minions for the first time.

He had discovered that the skeleton monsters’ aggro didn’t reset after they were killed. They remained firmly locked onto him.

So as he continued searching throughout the village, more and more skeletons followed him. No matter how many times he killed them, they would keep chasing him.

He would finish killing them, inspect a cellar, and then turn around to find them standing back up and surrounding him again.

Their numbers grew larger and larger, and their bones creaked and clattered all over. Although Liu Xuan could kill them instantly, the whole situation was still incredibly annoying.

“How can there be such disgusting minions?” Liu Xuan complained, his face full of distaste.

By this point, he had already found six or seven cellars and basements, but none of them were unusual.

However, just after he dealt with another group of minions and walked toward a newly discovered cellar, his eyes suddenly lit up.

At first glance, this cellar appeared to have been flooded with dirty water as well, but Liu Xuan noticed that its entrance was slightly different from the others.

Several lumps of mud protruded from the water.

There were two possibilities: either the entire entrance had been filled with silt, or something had blocked the entrance, with the mud merely piled on top of it.

Liu Xuan took out the [Golden Wind] and poked it into the filthy water. He immediately discovered something.

The water was actually less than a foot deep. It was only impossible to see through because it was so murky.

There should be a flat surface underneath. Judging from the sensation transmitted through his weapon when it struck the bottom, it was most likely stone.

In other words, a flat stone slab had sealed the entrance to the cellar. The water and mud were only a shallow layer spread across its surface.

Liu Xuan looked around for something convenient to use. Just then, the skeletons surrounded him again, and [Corpse Explosion] blew them apart, scattering their bones across the ground.

Liu Xuan’s eyes lit up. He casually picked up a skull beside him and used it as a scoop, bailing the muddy water out of the cellar entrance.

The skull’s jaw continued opening and closing in his hand as it desperately tried to reunite with its body.

“Just wait a little longer. I’ll return you in a moment.”

With such a convenient tool, Liu Xuan quickly scooped almost all of the muddy water out of the entrance.

As expected, there was a heavy, blue-black stone slab underneath.

Liu Xuan casually tossed away the skull in his hand. It rolled a long way with a series of clunks, and the headless skeleton hurriedly limped after it to retrieve its skull.

Liu Xuan reached down and wiped away the thin layer of filthy water remaining on the slab. A line of text was carved into its surface:

[Offer 10 points of life and pray for an audience with the great Stefan Walsh.]

Beneath the words was a recessed handprint. If nothing else, it seemed that he was supposed to place his hand there.

“Stefan Walsh? Who’s that? And why is ‘the great’ in front of his name?”

Liu Xuan rubbed his chin.

If this fellow was hiding beneath the cellar, there was no way he could be connected to the word “great”—at least, not in any way Liu Xuan could imagine.

And demanding a sacrifice of health before allowing anyone to meet him, combined with all the skeleton monsters outside, made it obvious that he wasn’t a good person.

Still, since he had come this far, he might as well see what kind of existence the other party was. There was no way he would be scared off by a stone slab, right?

The mere cost of 10 health points was something he could easily afford.

This reminded Liu Xuan of a game he had played. In one boss arena, there was a huge button labeled “DO NOT PRESS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES,” but there was always someone who couldn’t resist giving it a try.

Well, he’d pressed it himself.

Liu Xuan placed his hand into the handprint on the stone slab, and an icy, bone-chilling cold immediately coursed through him.

Yet after waiting for a moment, he didn’t lose any HP.

Then he remembered that 【Heavenly Being】 was probably taking effect.

Its fixed damage reduction had even negated this forced HP loss.

What was strange, however, was that Liu Xuan noticed a gray eye icon had appeared in his status bar—a debuff.

【You have been noticed by someone. Your health regeneration and the amount of healing you receive are reduced by 100%.】

No healing?

While Liu Xuan was still astonished, he noticed that the writing on the stone slab had changed slightly as well.

【Continue offering 20 points of life to pray for an audience with the great Stefan Walsh.】

What should he do? Should he continue?